How to treat the bogu

[bluerecords]

Hi guys,
even after many years of practice, am asking myself how to treat my bogu after practice. many years i had second hand second class bogu which i treated more or less unattentive. but now i bought my first expensive one and i am getting older now... :square:

e.g. how to bind the flaps together to keep them stiff, how to conserve the leather of kote, how to bind the tare to the do...

even if you think it's clear... I saw people bind the tare inverse to the do, or turn it on top ( 180 degrees).... etc...

please guys, don't be angry, but in first line i am interested in comments of experienced kenshi ... :square:



thanx
frank

[Hai_hai]

Hi guys,
even after many years of practice, am asking myself how to treat my bogu after practice. many years i had second hand second class bogu which i treated more or less unattentive. but now i bought my first expensive one and i am getting older now... :square:

e.g. how to bind the flaps together to keep them stiff, how to conserve the leather of kote, how to bind the tare to the do...

even if you think it's clear... I saw people bind the tare inverse to the do, or turn it on top ( 180 degrees).... etc...

please guys, don't be angry, but in first line i am interested in comments of experienced kenshi ... :square:



thanx
frank
Many years of practice... my a$$

[Neil Gendzwill]

Bind your tare to your doh with the belt of the tare lined up with the bottom of the doh and the front facing the doh. The reason for this is so that if the flaps of the tare bend while this is in your bag, they will bend the right way (inward over top of the doh, which means outward with that nice curl when you are wearing them).

Wipe any excess sweat from your men immediately after practice, and smooth the wrinkles out of the palms of your kote.

When you get home, immediately remove the men and kote from your bag and set out to dry away from direct heat or sunlight.

[bluerecords]

hi neil,
thank you for your experienced and valuable answer. you're clearly a man with experience. your comment is fully mindful, and especially the explaination for tare and kote i will follow thoroughly.

so maybe you can tell me also more about the men flaps. the problem is difficult to explain, but I will try in bad english:

i don't like flaps 'lying flat on the shoulder, or lying on the shoulder and only the corners showing upwards.

i would like that my oponent looks at my plaps, as if it were a 'wall' he's looking at. can you follow?

therefore it seems necessary to me, that the crossing of the binding in my neck should be higher ( which on the other side could be dangerous, if the oponent should try to push up my men at the nodo with his tsuba )

also i am interested, how to bind the men after keiko to preserve the 'sculpture' ?

...isn't it funny with what kind of 'silly' questions adult kenshi are dealing ...? :-)


...but honestly, one of the most important answers an 8. dan teacher gave me, was HOW to change my sloopes backbinding of men for keiko, that it will not reopened itself during the practise.
a little change with astonishing results.

..and belief me, it took me a loot of courage to ask him for that after 15 years of practise, while my coleagues asked him serious questions about Seme or heioshin concepts etc. ...!

bye

frank

[Neil Gendzwill]

Normally, you would make sure that the break in the men-dare starts in the middle of the leather reinforcement near the nodo, and then continues at the angle you like. For many people, a good angle is such that when you bind the men, the forward corners meet at the vertical bar of the men-gane. How much the men-dare come off the shoulders depends on how tightly you wrap the men-himo around. If you do it tightly then the break will be quite hard and the men-dare will be off the shoulder quite a bit, looking like wings. If you bind more loosely they'll lay down more. If you want the break higher, then just pull them around more, maybe so that the forward corners overlap when you bind the men.

One problem with getting the "wall" look that you want, is that the knot behind the head will be quite high. You may find the men insecure this way. Also, this is best done when the men is new.